You meet us at every major travel spot. In every small but beautiful village there is at least one of us. We could be in small groups, in couples or alone. We travel cheap, sleep cheap, eat cheap and rarely say “no”. In a way, we have an unwritten code of conduct – we pack our bags with great care, we collect trips, we've been places around the world, we love solitude, but we can be friends with every stranger. And we also have a holy book – it comes under different names but it takes us through the same off-beat path. Our greatest value is the appreciation of the big wide world out there, adventure, nature, culture and people. We are pilgrims to the places that others before us have seen, appreciated and written about. We seek the unknown, the alternative, the unspoiled. But we grow in numbers so fast that today our sacred locations are familiar to everyone, mainstream and overcrowded.
Academics study us in detail. Motivations? Destination choices? Influences and information source? Tourism planners do not want us – we are not interested in swimming pools and resorts, we dont have money. Local people? – well – you have to ask them. We'd like to think we are different, but our cheap, trying-everything-local mask is not fooling anybody. We can be an ignorant, hypocritical and destructive force.
We are backpackers.
We come and conquer. You don't believe me? Visit Granada, Bocas del Torro, Katmandu, Pucket, Bali, Marrakech, Cancun, Hoi Chi Min, Chengdu, Koh Phangan, Montezuma, Bayron's Bay, Guadalajara, Wild Coast Eastern Cape, El Bolson, Goa, Caye Caulker, Tofo. These are only a few of the headquarters- they practically belong to us. And that's just the beginning.
(on the picture: Backpacking: Principles & Practice, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, February 2009)
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